Friday, 31 July 2015

Soft opening at Red Racer, Yaletown

On Friday July 24th, Surrey’s
Central City Brewers + Distillers opened their 4800 sq ft Red Racer pub in the
old Dix’s BBQ location on Beatty St in Vancouver. We checked it out earlier at
a V.I.P. preview event.

This is a full service restaurant, not a
brewpub, as they’re not brewing beer onsite (yet). The interior has been refreshed
but remains mostly the same as it was for Dix. The service was vastly improved.

The sweeping main bar has a custom serving up a varied 40+ craft beers; 14 of their own plus various guest
taps from mainly local craft breweries including: Bomber, Bridge,
Dageraad, Persophone, Deschutes, 33 Acres, Driftwood, Steel & Oak,
Postmark, 4 Winds, Hoyne, Steamworks, Powell St, Parallel 49, Hearthstone and
others. Their big screen TV’s also serve as beer menus showing what beers are
being served on tap, how full each keg is and the prices for a glass, pint or
pitcher. Our server mentioned that growler refills will be available soon.

Food is key and includes the BBQ that Dix was
known for and a Build Your Own Burger Bar. We tried many of the starters they
plan to serve and especially enjoyed the Spring Rolls Al Pastor (good crunch),
the Scotch Eggs (well-seasoned) and the Squid Diablo (nice heat). The pulled
pork sandwiches were tasty as were the pork ribs (a little salty) but the
surprise favourite was the S’more dessert.

Looking forward to a follow-up visit to check
out the burger bar and work through more of the brews on tap.